accounts, which the Committee have no time to read, and for which the aumeen is well paid.  Possibly, however, the whole account is false.  Suppose no aumeen is employed, and the renter is held to the tenor of his engagement, the loss, if real, must occasion his ruin, unless his assessment is very moderate indeed.

“I may venture to pronounce that the real state of the districts is now less known, and the revenue less understood, than in the year 1774.  Since the natives have had the disposal of accounts, since they have been introduced as agents and trusted with authority, intricacy and confusion have taken place.  The records and accounts which have been compiled are numerous, yet, when any particular account is wanted, it cannot be found.  It is the business of all, from the ryots to the dewan, to conceal and deceive.  The simplest matters of fact are designedly covered with a veil through which no human understanding can penetrate.

“With respect to the present Committee of Revenue, it is morally impossible for them to execute the business they are intrusted with.  They are invested with a general control, and they have an executive authority larger than ever was before given to any board or body of men.  They may and must get through the business; but to pretend to assert that they really execute it would be folly and falsehood.

“The grand object of the native dewannies was to acquire independent control, and for many years they have pursued this with wonderful art.  The farmers and zemindars under the Committee prosecute the same plan, and have already objections to anything that has the least appearance of restriction.  All control removed, they can plunder as they please.

“The Committee must have a dewan, or executive officer, call him by what name you please.  This man, in fact, has all the revenues paid at the Presidency at his disposal, and can, if he has any abilities, bring all the renters under contribution.  It is of little advantage to restrain the Committee themselves from bribery or corruption, when their executive officer has the power of protecting [practising?] both undetected.

“To display the arts employed by a native on such an occasion would fill a volume.  He discovers the secret resources of the zemindars and renters, their enemies and competitors, and by the engines of hope and fear raised upon these foundations he can work them to his purpose.  The Committee, with the best intentions, best abilities, and steadiest application, must, after all, be a tool in the hand of their dewan.”

Here is the account of Mr. Hastings’s new Committee of Revenue, substituted in the place of an establishment made by act of Parliament.  Here is what he has substituted for Provincial Councils.  Here is what he has substituted in the room of the whole regular order of the service, which he totally subverted.  Can we add anything to this picture?  Can we heighten it?  Can we do anything more than to recommend it to your Lordships’ serious consideration?